Ibn Al-Baitar: the pioneer of botanist and pharmacist

Abstract

Ahmad Ibn Al-Baitar was one of the greatest scientists of Muslim Spain and also a well-known botanist and pharmacist of a Middle Ages. By using all the knowledge he learnt from Abu Al-Ábbas, he start collecting plants in and around Andalusia before he left Spain for plants collecting expeditions and travel along the North African coast before he authored his valuable books at Egypt. Ibn Al-Baitar’s major contribution, Kitab Al-Jame’, described about the basic medicines and nutrients derived from plants, animals, and minerals which hold a high status among botanist up to 18th century. He did not write something without first having observation and he had full confidence in inferences and deductions. Besides that, Ibn Al-Baitar was the first who specifies the timing of medicines, which one to be taken during the night and which were to be taken during the day.